UPDATES TO SOME PREVIOUS STORIES - Tom Maloy and Therese Study Porter

I have several new articles for this blog in the hopper but can't proceed with them for some reason or other - mostly because everything (historical societies, university libraries, county clerks, etc.) are all closed due to the pandemic.  Hopefully the quarantine will cease soon.  I have not had a haircut since February and I am starting to look like a refugee from the 1960s.

I have been writing articles for this blog and its predecessor since September of 2011.  Most of the articles I have written have gotten comments - some more than others.  The comments I like the best are from members of the families of people I have written about.  With one exception the comments have always been positive and through this blog I have "met" some very nice people and reconnected with my high school prom date who is as beautiful today as she was in 1974.   

So this month instead of publishing a new article for the blog I will share additional information I received on two of the stories I have written.

Back in August of 2014 I wrote about a man named Tom Maloy and asked if he got away with murder:

https://undereverytombstone.blogspot.com/2014/08/did-he-get-away-with-murder-thomas-maloy.html

Maloy had been suspected of the murder of motion picture projectionist Jack Kaufman in 1931.  Maloy was the head of the Motion Picture Operators Union.  Kaufman's murder was never solved and Maloy ended up being murdered himself in 1935.  Both Kaufman's and Maloy's murders are still on the books as "Unsolved". 

Fast forward to May 18, 2020 when I received this email from Ray in Arizona:

Found this picture hanging in the Chicago Hamburger Company restaurant located at 3749 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85018 whilst enjoying a real Chicago Hotdog (very hard to find by the way as is a Maxwell Street Polish Sausage). 

I did a little research and came across your blog on the subject so I decided to send the pic to you as there are several minor detail discrepancies - which, of course, was common from newspaper-to-newspaper of the era.

I enjoyed your blog and the grave site pictures, thanks for your contributions. 

Ray  

Here are the photos Ray attached to his email:

I told Ray the the Chicago American newspaper was a Hearst paper, so their stories were always more lurid than the staid Chicago Tribune.  Unfortunately I am not aware of any Chicago American archive or I would subscribe to it.  I guess the owners of the Chicago Hamburger Co. felt that Chicagoans would feel more at home if some gangster memorabilia was on display.

But just as important as the memorabilia is the fact that the Chicago Hamburger Co. has Chicago style hot dogs.  Now being from Evanston, I personally feel that no hot dog surpasses the hot dogs served at Bill's Drive-In on Asbury:

But all you snowbirds will be happy to know where you can find a good Chicago hot dog in Phoenix.  

So thank you again to Ray for his kind comments, the photos and the hot dog information.

One of the posts that I did that generated the most comments was the one I wrote in September of 2019 on Therese Study Porter:

https://undereverytombstone.blogspot.com/2019/09/evanston-woman-whose-husband-died-on.html

The original story was that her husband had died on their wedding day and after that, she put his car up on blocks in the driveway of their house and never moved it again.

It turned out that she was a rich eccentric who did put her husband's car up on blocks after he died because she didn't like the local sheriff who had complained to her about it.  But it was not on their wedding day - Albert Porter died sixteen years after he married Therese.  She died extremely wealthy and left her money to the care of animals. (Yay!) That comment was from Gracie the beagle in between naps:

On November 22, 2019 I received this email from Chris McDivitt:

Dear Mr. Craig,

I enjoyed reading your article about Therese Study Porter on your blog.  I have been going through keepsakes from my aunt who passed away about 15 years ago and came across a box containing a note, an old tin type photo, and a personal "business" card with the name "Mrs. Albert Brown Porter, 1024 Lakeshore Dr."  I attached photos of each.  I imagine the tin type is of Therese's father, a young Thomas Jefferson Study -- "Mr. Study" in the small photo attached to the note.

As you could imagine, after reading your article, I'm now even more interested in how these came into my aunt's possession.  My aunt was Emma E. Beaver, born in eastern Rush County in 1913. She moved to Indianapolis in the 1930s where she became a nurse and worked for Methodist Hospital until the 1980s.  Mrs. Porter grew up in an adjacent community to my aunt, so there may be some connection there.  Who knows, though...it may always be a mystery.

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of these items.  It sounds like Mrs. Porter had a fascinating, albeit sad ending to her life.

Best,

Chris McDivitt

Indianapolis, Indiana

Here are the photos Chris sent me:

Very interesting to say the least.  As my dear Mother always used to say, "Watch what you say to people - you never know who knows who."

So, that's it for this month.  By July 1st hopefully the quarantine will be lifted and I will be able to bring you some more of the interesting stories that lie "Under Every Tombstone."